Lots of people plan their visits to Wine Country during harvest season, late summer through the fall, when vineyards are lush and green and you might get to see some of the messy winemaking process in action. (Also, if you ever have a chance to taste a ripe wine grape off the vine, don’t pass it up.)

But this time of year is a very underrated period for winery visits. I love seeing the bare, leafless vines and the beginnings of cover crop between them. I love the cool, gray weather. And I love how quiet and peaceful it feels in California wine regions during this offseason.

That’s a flowery way of saying that there’s no bad time of year to visit Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, Paso Robles, Monterey or any of our state’s other wine destinations. With that in mind, we’ve published a list of 52 wineries you should visit in 2019 — our second annual such listing on The Press, back by popular demand. This list of 52 represents the full scope of what’s on offer at California wineries today, which is a lot. Wine tastings here happen in barns, in grand estates, in dense downtown thoroughfares and on remote mountains.

Whether you are a wine aficionado or not, I maintain that visiting wineries is one of the best ways to explore California: It’s a lesson in geography, in geology, in architecture, in history and in culture.

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Many of you have asked: Why doesn’t this list of 52 include Santa Barbara? Or Lodi? Or Amador, El Dorado and Calaveras counties — the Sierra foothills? Be assured that coverage of those regions (and others) is coming. When we launch coverage of a new region on The Press, it represents many months of research, reporting and writing, and we’re currently hard at work expanding our editorial arm into new corners of California. This year’s list pulls only from the regions where we’ve already done our homework. (Speaking of which, check back on Jan. 20 for our full launch of our Paso Robles reviews!)

Take a look at our list of 52 and please, let us know which are your favorite California wineries to visit.

Where I’m drinking

The Ti Punch at Obispo.

Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

It only took him five years, but just before Christmas Thad Vogler — who owns the excellent bars Trou Normand and Bar Agricole in San Francisco — opened Obispo, his rum bar on 24th St. in the Mission that lands with an unusually aggressive agenda. “I’ve come to kind of hate tiki,” Vogler told me. As the rest of the city is reveling in ever more over-the-top tiki, Vogler has opened a very different sort of rum bar, one that does not gloss over the bloody, difficult history of colonialism in rum-producing nations. That’s a tall order for a watering hole. It’s also now one of the best places to drink high-quality spirits in town.

In Eric Asimov’s latest edition of “Wine School,” he’s asking readers to try “supermarket wines,” three of the most popular reds in America: Meiomi Pinot Noir, Apothic Red and the Prisoner. I’m very much looking forward to hearing what Asimov and his readers think of these bottles.

NBA players aren’t just obsessed with fine wine. They (or at least the Portland Trail Blazers) are into third-wave coffee, too, reports Baxter Holmes in ESPN.

According to the Washington Post, scientists in the world’s oldest wine region, Georgia, are preparing to make wine in the universe’s newest wine region — Mars.

Almanac Beer Co. will close its Mission District taproom later this month, though its Alameda location will remain open. (Co-founder Jesse Friedman left the company last summer.)

Wine critic Esther Mobley joined The Chronicle in 2015 to cover California wine, beer and spirits. Previously she was an assistant editor at Wine Spectator magazine in New York, and has worked harvests at wineries in Napa Valley and Argentina. She studied English literature at Smith College.